Rs 200 cr hospital scam: Delhi LG approves prosecution of five disabled engineers

New Delhi, October 28 (IANS): Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has given sanction for the prosecution of five engineers from the Public Works Department (PWD) in a corruption case linked to the alleged Rs 200 crore scam in government hospitals, sources said on Monday.

The fraud involved issuing false invoices and paying contractors who performed incomplete work at hospitals during the pandemic. Initial investigations revealed that PWD officials approved the payments even though the contractors did not complete the electrical work.

The LG approved the sanction of prosecution under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against two assistant engineers and two junior engineers from the electrical department of PWD.

The engineers named in the FIR are Assistant Engineers Subhash Chand and Subhash Chandra Dass and junior engineers Rajesh Aggarwal, Raghural Solanki and Abhinav.

In July, an additional managing director of PWD and two private firm owners were arrested in connection with the alleged fraud.

At that time, the accused were identified as former Disabled Deputy General Manager Anil Kumar Ahuja and company owners Vinay Kumar and Akshitiz Birmani.

At the time of these arrests, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) said: “ÖZLÜ officials paid private firms/contractors either for not performing work or for incomplete work against fake/fake invoices.”

ACB also found deficiencies in the approval and implementation of work orders, leading to a loss of around Rs 200 billion to the government exchequer.

At the time of Ahuja’s arrest, ACB had alleged that he conspired with 10 company owners and approved 56 works.

Investigators alleged that Ahuja misused provisions used to classify jobs as urgent and urgent. The two business categories carry different SOPs for verification of invoices and payments to contractors, and decision-makers have broad powers under the contingency category.

After receiving a complaint, ACB launched an investigation which revealed that the contractors involved in the scam did not have any e-shipping invoices for the materials allegedly used to carry out electrical works. Additionally, there was an inordinate delay in depositing purchase invoices after completion of the work.

The LG’s sanction to prosecute the five engineers will surely raise the political temperature in the poll-bound capital with Opposition parties often targeting the AAP government over corruption.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav said Delhi residents are disappointed with the AAP government’s misrule in the last 10 years as the only thing former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and current CM Atishi appreciated was corruption.